"I think what really woke people up is you have the Joe Biden deep-fake robo-call," Hobbs said in a video call with McClatchy. "It sounds like Joe Biden, so that woke people up."
DOES AI POSE A THREAT TO THE ELECTION?
"It certainly has raised a lot of concern, especially among the secretaries of state and and just the fact that it's prevalent globally, used as a tool by nation-state actors to disrupt countries' elections," Hobbs said. "We've seen that in Taiwan, Ukraine. In fact, the recent elections, the European Union, or Europe, we saw a lot of that happening."
Hobbs said that Washington hasn't seen any notable deep-fakes used to influence an election yet, but as they become common globally, that will likely change in the near future.
Hobbs said that he's primarily seen deep-fakes used by states attempting to interfere with the elections, although there have been a few cases where individuals put out AI fakes as well.
HOW WA IS COMBATING AI DEEP-FAKES
Washington has already begun planning how it would combat deep-fakes in its elections — in 2023, it passed legislation that required a disclosure if a deep-fake was used in a political campaign. But according to Hobbs, the bill didn't go far enough.
"I wanted a much stronger bill," Hobbs said. "But social media companies have lobbyists and lobbyists, you know, they can be convincing, right?"
According to Hobbs, the bill should have allowed the government to sue social media companies for allowing deep-fakes to circulate, in order to encourage them to double down on measures to catch deep-fakes. Instead, it stopped at allowing an individual to sue for a harmful deep-fake that doesn't include a disclosure.
"Well, that's a good first step, but that doesn't solve our problem, where, let's say I'm a malign actor. I'm going to put out a digital ad that's a deep-fake on you name the social media platform. And it's going to run for a while, until maybe the social media platform takes it down, maybe it doesn't, and the damage has been done," Hobbs said.
Even with the new law, Hobbs said his office, and his counterparts across the country, are taking efforts to prepare for the use of deep-fakes to influence November's general election.
"Now secretaries of state are taking an active role, because we have to," Hobbs said. "We have to both push back on these nation state actors, but also we have our own people we've got to worry about. Because now you have a percentage of the population that our election-deniers, and we have to educate them on what elections are in reality versus what they think they are."
State officials have exercises on combating deep-fakes scenarios into their election preparation, Hobbs said.
"We do tabletop exercises, bring up different threats — not just generative AI — that comes about."
Hobbs said that Washington state's other strategy for preventing deep-fakes from influencing the election is by spreading awareness for how the elections are run, so people know when to be suspicious of a fake.
"The other thing that we've been attempting to do is putting more information out there in the public about elections in general."
Somewhat ironically, election officials have turned to AI tools to combat disinformation, according to Hobbs.
"We're in a world now where you have to use AI to combat AI," Hobbs said. "So we use Logically AI, that scans social media and then lets us know what false narratives are out there. And if we see a false narrative that's reaching a critical mass, then what we will do is we'll work with our 39 counties, we'll work with the news media and our partners, like the League of Women Voters and other organizations that could put the word out."
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AI IN THE ELECTION
So what does Hobbs want the public to know about deep-fakes ahead of the election? First of all, they're typically used to cause chaos more than to support any one party or candidate.
"People should know that it's not just the presidential elections that nation-state actors will target, but they will target local elections as well, as any way to cause chaos is a win for them," Hobbs said. "And it doesn't matter if it's Republican or Democrat."
Hobbs also wants the public to think critically if they see a photo or video that seems suspicious circulating online.
"My hope is the general public will, if they see an ad and it doesn't seem right, then feel free to contact the Secretary of State's office," Hobbs said. "Or, if you don't trust me, go contact your local county auditor. ... Go ahead and question it, go seek out the right answer."
TIPS FOR SPOTTING A DEEP-FAKE
According to the AI prompt management tool AIPRM, there are a handful of steps that people can take to spot a deep-fake.
- Verify the photo or recording's source and its context
- Pay close attention to facial movements, especially eye and mouth expressions, blinking patterns and jerky head movements, as well as the shape of the subject's face or ears
- Use reverse image search tools to find out where the recording or photo originated
- Look for inconsistencies or digital flaws, such as blurriness, pixelation and background distortion
- Make sure that the audio and video are synchronized
©2024 The Bellingham Herald, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
